Saturday political columns

A quick round-up of the Saturday political opinion pieces; or the ones Adam read at any rate.

1  Fran O’Sullivan looks at the furore over that Sian Elias speech:-

Welcome to round two of Judges versus the Executive as Chief Justice Sian Elias issues a damning indictment on the vengeful nature of successive governmental sentencing policies.

Elias has done the body politic – and New Zealand – a favour by putting on record her deep disquiet over what she calls the “repersonalisation of the criminal justice system”.

The article is worth reading. There are a number of good points which need thinking about.

2 Colin James writes in The Press on the need to set targets for carbon emissions and some of the factors that complicate the issue

3 Claire Trevett writes at the NZ Herald on John Key’s Pacific Tour and contrasts Key not unfavourably with his immediate predecessor

Key has never been risk-averse, as long as the risk is calculated. The trip proved that. The delegation, which sometimes looked like a circus, did more than simply cement Key’s relationships at a leader-to-leader level. The hip-hop dancers proved strong ambassadors at a level Key could never have reached.

But the leaders of the countries he visited will also have learned that after the dancing is over, Key plays as straight a game as Helen Clark did.

Key accomplished what he set out to do.

4 Tracy Watkins looks at the Winstonator and whether he can make another comeback, she concludes:-

But he will still be the old dog relying on the same tricks. And that may not be enough.

There is the crux of the matter.

Enjoy the columns.

Note to Barry Colman, this might be aggregation, but some sites will get a bit more traffic. Yet NBR will not, because Matthew Hooton’s column is not online.

NBR does not get the internet, see Lance Wigg’s great analysis.